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Integrated Water Coning Control Approach in Thin
Oil Rim Reservoirs in the Niger Delta: A Simulation
Approach
Anietie N. Okon, Dulu Appah & Julius U. Akpabio
University of Uyo
ABSTRACT
In the Niger Delta, most of the thin oil rim reservoirs accumulate potential recoverable reserves. However,
their development/production is characterize by early water breakthrough from water coning phenomenon.
Available water coning control methods reduce the water coning tendency but leave the bypassed oil in the
reservoir(s). In this study, integrated water coning control approach that combines Downhole Water Loop
(DWL) completion and polymeric gel injection was developed to minimize water coning tendency and
improve reservoir sweep efficiency in thin oil rim reservoir(s). The simulation results obtained indicated
that the integrated water coning control approach reduced water production by 62.80% and 83.26% at 6
and 3 months polymeric gel injection intervals respectively. Also, it improved oil production by 171.25% and
239.06% for the respective polymeric gel injections. Comparing the integrated approach with the DWL
completion showed that the developed integrated approach performed better than the DWL completion; as
the DWL reduced water production by 38.0% and improved oil production by 75.0%. Therefore, the
developed integrated water coning control approach can be used as a veritable tool for minimizing water
coning tendency to improve oil recovery from thin oil rim reservoirs in the Niger Delta.
Keywords: water coning, integrated water coning control approach, downhole water loop, thin oil rim reservoir, Niger
Delta.
nglish
Language: E
London
LJP Copyright ID: 392835
Print ISSN: 2631-8474
Journals Press
Online ISSN: 2631-8482
LJP
449U
Volume 19 | Issue 1 | Compilation 1.0
© 2019. Anietie N. Okon, Dulu Appah & Julius U. Akpabio. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all
noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Integrated Water Coning Control Approach in
Thin Oil Rim Reservoirs in the Niger Delta: A
Simulation Approach
Anietie N. Okonα, Dulu Appahσ & Julius U. Akpabioρ
____________________________________________
.
ABSTRACT I. INTRODUCTION
In the Niger Delta, most of the thin oil rim In oil and gas production, one major recurrent
reservoirs accumulate potential recoverable problem is the production of water. According to
reserves. However, their development/ Okon and Appah (2018) the produced water in
production is characterize by early water most cases is a result of the normal rise of oil
breakthrough from water coning phenomenon. water contact, water coning, water fingering,
Available water coning control methods reduce water channeling or a combination of these. In
the water coning tendency but leave the bypassed thin oil rim reservoirs, water coning is more
oil in the reservoir(s). In this study, integrated pronounced due to its thinly oil spread column.
water coning control approach that combines The occurrence of this phenomenon pose serious
Downhole Water Loop (DWL) completion and production challenges, which includes: water
The Niger Delta like other regions in the world et al., 2012). Therefore, an increase in production
has several thin oil rim reservoirs with potential rate initiates an increase in the height of the cone
recoverable reserves. Literatures on some Niger as it moves towards instability and results in
Delta oil reservoirs indicated that most of them water breakthrough. This instability of the cone is
have less than 80 feet thick oil columns and are as a result of the strong upward dynamic force
therefore vulnerable to coning problem (Kabir et caused by high pressure drawdown which cannot
al., 2004; Mogbo, 2010). One important issue in be equaled by the weight of water. Tabatabaei et
the development of these reservoirs is water al. (2012) alluded that water breakthrough occurs
and/or gas coning problems that have detrimental at a point above which the dynamic pressure
effects on the ultimate oil recovery and the project gradient is greater than the hydrostatic pressure
economics (Okon, 2018). Onwukwe et al. (2012) gradient. Thus, Figure 1 depicts the schematic of
reported that due to high coning occurrences in water coning in vertical well.
the Niger Delta, most wells have been shut-in and
recompleted in order to combat this problem. As
earlier mentioned, there are several developed
water coning control methods, however, these
methods have a major drawback – they leave
bypassed oil in the reservoir (Okon et al., 2017b).
For thin oil rim reservoirs in the Niger Delta,
there is no established approach for minimizing
water production due to water coning. Therefore,
Source: Inikori (2002)
it is pertinent to study water coning phenomenon
Figure 1: Schematic representation water coning
in thin oil rim reservoirs in the Niger Delta to
in vertical wells
develop integrated approach to minimize water
Integrated Water Coning Control Approach in Thin Oil Rim Reservoirs in the Niger Delta: A Simulation Approach
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2 Volume 19 | Issue 1 | Compilation 1.0 © 2019 London Journals Press
1.2 Water Coning Control Methods 1991; Siemek and Stopa, 2002), among others. In
addition, Tu et al. (2007) identified some of these
In the petroleum industry, several authors had
methods as key production techniques used to
developed methods to control water coning in
control water coning during early production of
bottom-water drive reservoirs. These methods
oil and gas. However, these water coning control
include: selective water plugging (Kisman, 1991);
methods have their limitations on the
chemical gelled baffles (Paul and Strom, 1988);
bottom-water drive reservoirs or/and the wellbore
optimized perforations (Ehlig-Economides et al.,
vicinity. The comparison of some water coning
1996); horizontal wells (Joshi, 1991; Chen, 1993;
controls methods were reported by Okon et al.
Permadi, 1997); producing oil and water
(2017b) as presented in Table 1.
separately with downhole water sink (DWS) or
downhole water loop (DWL) (Wojtanowicz et al.,
Integrated Water Coning Control Approach in Thin Oil Rim Reservoirs in the Niger Delta: A Simulation Approach
II. INTEGRATED WATER CONING producer and injector wells. The producer well
CONTROL APPROACH DEVELOPMENT was completed based on DWL configuration, with
one oil production interval at the oil zone and two
The developed integrated water coning control
completions, that is, water drainage interval
approach for thin oil rim reservoir in this study
(WDI) and water re-injection interval (WRI) at
was based on the works of Smith and Pirson
the water zone (aquifer). On the other hand, the
(1963), Hoyt (1974) and Paul and Strom (1988)
injector well had two completions; one completed
combined with Downhole Water Loop (DWL)
near the water-oil contact (WOC) and the other at
technology. Smith and Pirson (1963) and Hoyt
the mid depth between WDI and WRI (Figure 2).
(1974) suggested injection of some of the
The integrated water coning control approach was
produced oil into the formation below the
simulated using the reservoir model depicted in
production intervals to build pressure gradient
Figure 3. The polymeric gel injection in the
barriers and in so doing suppress water coning.
injector well was activated with the keyword
Also, Paul and Strom (1988) proposed injection of
“POLYMER” at the RUNSPEC and WELLSPEC
water–soluble polymeric gel to control bottom
sections in the Eclipse-100 input data file. The
water mobility. Thus, the schematic of the
completion intervals and depths of the wells:
developed integrated water coning control
producer and injector are presented in Table 2.
approach as used in the reservoir models (Figures
These intervals in the producer well with DWL
3) is depicted in Figure 2. The integrated water
completion are presented in Figure 4.
coning control approach involved the use of
Integrated Water Coning Control Approach in Thin Oil Rim Reservoirs in the Niger Delta: A Simulation Approach
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2 Volume 19 | Issue 1 | Compilation 1.0 © 2019 London Journals Press
Figure 2: Well configuration of the developed integrated water coning control approach.
Figure 3: Reservoir model of the thin oil rim reservoir in the Niger Delta
Integrated Water Coning Control Approach in Thin Oil Rim Reservoirs in the Niger Delta: A Simulation Approach
Integrated Water Coning Control Approach in Thin Oil Rim Reservoirs in the Niger Delta: A Simulation Approach
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2 Volume 19 | Issue 1 | Compilation 1.0 © 2019 London Journals Press
Field Oil Production Total (FOPT). These are about 37.99%, 62.80% and 83.26% reduction of
depicted in Figures 5 through 8. The water FWPT from DWL, INTEGRATED #1 and
production parameters - FWCT and FWPT INTEGRATED #2 approaches respectively, when
(Figures 5 and 6) showed that less water compared with the BASECASE FWPT of 21.8
production was obtained with the integrated MMstb.
water coning control approach than downhole
water loop (DWL) completion. Furthermore,
these results indicated that lower water
production was obtained from 3 months polymer
injection interval (INTEGRATED #2) than from 6
months polymer injection interval (INTEGRATED
#1). This less water production from the 3 months
polymer injection interval is a result of reduced
water mobility (Paul and Strom, 1988) in the
water zone (aquifer) by the frequent injection of
polymer gel. For the 6 months polymer injection
interval, the mobility of the bottom-water was also
Figure 5: Comparison of the field water-cut
reduced to suppress the upward movement of
(FWCT).
water (water coning tendency) but not as in the 3
month polymer injection interval, which is
evident in the FWPT result obtained (Figure 6).
Analysis of the water production parameters at
Table 3: Water and oil production parameters obtained at 4108 days for the different
reservoir completion scenarios
Water Production
Simulations Run Oil Production Parameters
Parameters
FWCT FWPT (bbl) FOPR (bbl/day) FOPT (bbl)
i. BASECASE 0.7325 21,777,366 1,178.656 1,640,346
ii. DWL 0.4542 13,501,967 2,062.649 2,870,606
iii. INTEGRATED #1 0.3179 8,101,180 3.197.105 4,449,440
iv. INTEGRATED #2 0.2225 3,645,531 3.996.382 5,561,800
Integrated Water Coning Control Approach in Thin Oil Rim Reservoirs in the Niger Delta: A Simulation Approach
Integrated Water Coning Control Approach in Thin Oil Rim Reservoirs in the Niger Delta: A Simulation Approach
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iii. The developed integrated water coning East Oil Technical Conference and Exhibition,
control approach performed better (i.e., Bahrain, 3-6 April.
reduce produced water and improve oil 6. Chierici, G. L., Ciucci, G. M. and Pizzi, G.
recovery) than DWL approach; as it reduced (1964). A Systematic Study of Water Coning
water production by 38.0% and improved oil by Potentiometric Models. Journal of
production by 75.0%. Petroleum Technology, 17: 923-929.
7. Ehlig-Economides, C. A., Chan, K. S. and
From the foregoing, huge volume of water
Spath, J. B. (1996). Production Enhancement
handling at the surface and disposal challenges
Strategies for Strong Bottom Water Drive
are overcome with the developed integrated
Reservoirs. Paper presented at the Society of
approach compared to other existing methods.
Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical
Therefore, the developed integrated water coning
Conference and Exhibition, Denver, Colorado,
control approach can be used as a veritable tool
6-9 October.
for minimizing water coning tendency to improve
8. Guo, B. and Lee, R. L. (1992). A Simple
oil recovery from thin oil rim reservoirs in the
Approach to Optimization of Completion
Niger Delta.
Interval in Oil/Water Coning Systems. Paper
presented at the Society of Petroleum
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